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Americans open to U.S. troops for fighting Islamic State

Americans are increasingly open to putting U.S. troops in combat to stop the Islamic State, according to polling that could boost hawks pushing Congress to approve the broadest grant of force to President Obama to escalate the fight in Iraq and Syria.

Mr. Obama has been reluctant to commit troops to the fight beyond logistics support, but the country is moving in that direction, with American opinion about evenly split, according to a Pew Research Poll released last week. In October, 39 percent favored using U.S. ground forces.